A Moment Of Weakness (working title)
by Sparrow Harper
Summary: Talia is Dead. Bane has been more destructive than ever, until a clash with Wonder Woman and her golden lasso. They both feel the after effects for weeks and Diana convinces Bane to meet with her one on one-peacefully. The following ensues... This is my first FanFic ever, be gentle ;)


"Wonder Woman, stand down." Bruce said grabbing Diana's arm and trying to pull her backward away from Bane. Calmly she looked at his leather clad fingertips biting into her bicep. Her azure gaze traveled slowly up his arm to rest in his dark eyes. Bruce cleared his throat and carefully let her go. Diana stepped up to him, chest to chest, eye to eye and lowly growled knitting her words into her breath for only him to hear. "You are not my keeper, Bruce. I'd thank you to remember that."

"Diana, I…that wasn't…" her glare was so fierce it forced him to look over her head at Bane looming just behind. "I just know how you've been since the last encounter." He spoke softly attempting to separate the man that wanted to love her from the cowl.

"This is no longer your concern." She quirked a brow and stepped back before placing her hand gently on his chest. She tapped his emblem lightly to assure him. Diana turned to Bane and took him up by the elbow. "Please?" She said gesturing for him to turn and walk with her.

He moved easily with her and looked over his shoulder at Batman. Though most of his face was obscured by the mask Bruce could see the smile lines fold under Bane's eyes as he walked off with Diana. Batman's chest tightened, with a sigh as he went back to the batwing and leaned against it. Wonder Woman and Bane slowly became distant silhouettes in the early morning fog.

Diana looked back at the blur that was Bruce and saw the attempt at a discreet movement of his arm. "Turn-the-ears _**off**_." She said coldly. The clang of a metallic thump reached her and Bane. He looked in Batman's direction as well for a moment then back to Diana.

Diana smiled and turned to Bane, but her smile shrank away as she looked at him watching her. He wasn't much taller than her but he was bigger. Nothing she couldn't handle, of course. If it came to physicality, which she hoped it wouldn't, she was sure her strength and speed would not fail her. It wasn't the idea of an altercation that had her mildly unnerved. It was just - him. The way he looked at her. The connection they made the last time they met. She had been stained by all of those feelings. Rage. Loss. Heartache. Hate. The idea of it made her skin crawl. _So much_ _hate_ and not just for others for himself as well. He was too strong and shrewd to be allowed to wallow in such misery. She wanted desperately to help him find a new purpose. Diana knew he'd done terrible things, but he did them all out of love; a toxic misguided love but pure love none-the-less.

Bane reached out and took one of Diana's curls in his fingertips. She did her best not to become defensive against his touch. She watched his eyes so sad and telling. He turned the lock of hair over and spoke absently, "Talia's hair was like this. A shining blanket of night." He gently brushed Diana's hair back from her face and shoulders. Bane turned and looked back to the shadow in the distance that was the Batman leaning against his metal steed. Revenge flashed in his mind and he carefully placed one of his large rough hands on either side of Diana's neck. Her skin was smooth and warm even in the cool murky environment they stood in. She was smart to meet him on the game preserve so early in the morning, he thought. His mind drifted for a moment before Bane said flatly looking down into her eyes, "He killed her." Diana's eyes, they were radiant with hope. Hope was a sight he'd not seen forever, it seemed. Fear, it was always fear he saw in his opponents. Wonder Woman was just that, a wonder. She wasn't opposing him. She wasn't flinching away from his touch or breaking eye contact. Diana sought him out with a heartfelt purpose. Even now as he contemplated snapping her delicate neck she gazed on him with hope. Strangely, or not so, it touched him and he let one hand fall away from her face. He shifted his eyes back to the shadow.

"It was an accident." She said to him softly reaching up and placing her hand over his. "You know Bat…" and she thought better of it. Why patronize him? He knew who they were. "…you know Bruce isn't like that. He doesn't kill. Bane?" she watched him carefully. She was not so hopelessly naive as her male counter parts thought she could be. Yes, she firmly believed in reason and love and logic. Head then heart then fists. Diana knew that Bane was not to be trusted but that didn't stop her from wanting to. His eyes were so hard as he glared at Bruce. She wouldn't be surprised if Bruce found two round bruises on his chest later. Bane looked at her and exhaled a ragged breath. She watched the wild anger slowly dissipate as he came back to her.

Bane slipped his hand out from under Diana's and moved back from her. He doesn't want to hear her. He doesn't want to listen to her defend Bruce Wayne. The Batman. The person responsible for taking the only light in his world and snuffing it out like a cheap cigar. The truth was; that without Talia he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to hear that Bruce lamented her death. He, Bane, felt her death every minute of every day as if it were his own life draining from his flesh. He was a ship at sea, lost in a torrent of sadness. He turned from Diana and her damned hopeful eyes. What the hell did she want from him?

When Bane turned from her she held back the urge to reach out to him. Her initial instinct was to comfort, a kind word, a gently placed hand, but this was quite the extraordinary situation. She knew if she could not reason with him, show him there was another path, a new destiny, Bruce would find the strength to restrain Bane and turn him in to Gotham's Police Force. She would have no option but to help her friend. Her hand glanced off of the lasso. Her insides boiled and she clenched her fists nails driving deep into her palms. Diana grunted with discomfort folding slightly at the waist when her muscles came alive with painful tension. She could only conclude that this was the embodiment of the despair Bane wrestled since Talia's death.

The lasso of truth had never done this, retained the emotions of another it had ensnared. That was how strong Bane's mind was, his feelings of torment had been so honest the golden rope absorbed them. The lasso had echoed his sentiments constantly, hummed with them. It was all the more reason Diana felt an urgency to attempt to sway him from the self-destructive rampage he'd been on. He'd take half of Gotham if not all of it deep into the abyss if left to his own devices. Bruce couldn't do it alone, contain Bane. She knew the history. Bruce would never admit to a want for help so she conveniently passed through the city when word of Talia's death had reached her. She had to admit that Bane's vicious attacks had decreased in the last month since they had become tangled in the mythic weapon.

Bane heard Diana make a low guttural noise and looked back over his shoulder to see her pitched forward. He looked at the ground in front of his feet then spared another glance for the Amazon. She seemed to struggle as she forced herself erect. The hope still glinting in her large round eyes, stead fast even as he could tell she was hurting in tremendous fashion. It looked alien on her, the pain did. They had clashed in the past but nothing like this last time. The lariat she wielded had bound them together briefly. It was enough that he felt her very epicenter of emotions. Her hard determination to conquer him, her fierce loyalty to the strangers she fought to protect, her unyielding sense of righteousness, a soft glowing love that radiated from every fiber of her being. It was clear to him that Wonder Woman's actions were forged by her love for the many. It caused him to pause during their tussle to simply hold her in regard. Remarkable was the only word that came to mind then. Now the word listed quietly from his lips. Her essence plagued him during the on coming weeks. He couldn't even remember how he'd escaped from her during that last fight. Had she let him go? If so, why? "Diana?" Bane turned to her as he spoke her name, "Why did you call me here? What is it you want from me?" He asked point blank. There was no need for cat and mouse deductions.

She smiled and took a deep cleansing breath attempting to exhale out the nausea and soreness that had seeped into her guts and bones. She was relieved he was being forthright with her and giving the conversation a chance. "Bane, when we last met we were literally at each other's throats. Then, by some…grace, I got the better of you. I used the Lasso of Truth to bind your wrists and shoulders and also looped its ends around my forearms and hands." She suspended her speech to watch his eyes. No anger rose and after a moment he gave her a curt nod. "It leeched emotions from you, the mental suffering and physical ache. Never has this happen in the history of the lasso's existence; at least not in our partnership. It proves the power of your mind. The pureness of your heart; to feel so much and have no proper outlet? That is why I asked to see you. Bane," Diana stepped up to him fearlessly, placing her hands on the chest pockets of the heavy tactical vest he wore, "you have the ability to start a new journey. I can help you turn that red festering torment into an instrument of noble good. Your intellect, your heart, they are so strong. Let us…_let_ _me_ help you?" She felt tears well in her eyes and was careful not to blink hard enough to let them spill out. She brushed the lasso again and was washed with a fresh wave of pain so immense it actually frightened her. She staggered back with another muted groan and crossed her arms over her stomach.

Bane cocked his head watching the Amazon's eyes begin to mist just before she stumbled back from him. He reached out one hand to steady her at the shoulder. Diana looked up with a soft curl to her lips and one crystalline tear had traced a path over the curve of her cheek and hugged the edge of her jaw. He didn't know what to do. All of his rage abandon him and left behind a dizzying confusion married to an all consuming sadness. His hand left her shoulder and cleared the tear from her skin. He let his fingertips linger soaking in the soft warmth of her, "Tal…", he sighed, disgusted, catching himself and pulling his hand back, "Diana, there is no place for me in justice when vengeance is all I know."

"That's not true. You can learn, we've all learned in one way or another." Her words were breathy as a sharp pain ripped through her chest. He wanted something, someone to care for. Femininity was not her normal tactic but she was in the unique position to give him that. Diana straightened the best she could and offered a weak smile as a mask to the throbbing that had worked its way through out her body.

"You know my anguish." He stepped up to her and ran his fingertips over the coil of the lasso. Diana closed her hand over his clamping it to her hip. "You've felt it. You feel it now as you stand here trembling, mighty Amazon. You know the truth." His words weren't mocking, they were distant and sad. He smirked at his hand on her hip and briefly looked past her to Batman. Again he felt revenge tap him on the shoulder. His heart raced and his want to decimate Bruce Wayne flared but it was fleeting as Diana collapsed against him. Bane caught her deftly in his massive arms and held her up. "Diana?" he asked softly holding her closer and tighter than he knew he should.

Bruce watched from a distance as their silhouettes bobbed and shifted. He growled to himself not being able to figure out what it was Wonder Woman saw in Talia's thug. Then he thought on Talia. The crazed eyes and maniacal laughter, it was like she had been possessed. Rotted by the power she manipulated until all else crippled and fell below her. He sighed remembering the woman she once was, he couldn't save that woman but he certainly never intended to end her life. It was a tragic case of happenstance. Then he thought he understood. Diana, always first to think with her heart, she was trying to help Bane, save him. "Impossible." He muttered to himself as he started to pace. At a glance he saw the more slender outline fall against the larger. His muscles snapped to attention and he started towards them but he saw her pull away and there was no force or hurry in the movement. Bruce stepped back and clenched his fists, he knew better than to cut into this dance. 'A woman scorned.' He thought. He knew she was capable of taking care of herself. He just didn't want her to have to.

Diana squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head hard a couple of times, the common response when one tries to clear their head. She lightly placed a hand on his stomach and pushed herself back a little to look at him. "I'm…I'm sorry." Wonder Woman wasn't sure if she was apologizing to Bane or to herself for becoming weak. It was the lasso. When an artifact with such majesty and enlightenment speaks you stop and you _listen_. How could she ignore the call of her trusted companion? What did this strange new ability mean? She let Bane hold her for a moment longer than was necessary and then gained her legs and stepped back. She glanced over her shoulder to see Bruce's dark elegant figure in the fog, motionless and on point. He didn't rush them and she smiled briefly. Turning back to Bane, "You can learn, Bane. We can teach you." Her voice was quiet, measured. She searched his face for any indication that he'd been listening. "Please?" she pushed a gentle feminine beg into the one word question. The pain started to drain from her body, something was changing in him. The lasso hummed against her bare thigh. She caressed the softly glimmering cord and attained a feeling of want. Diana looked at Bane sharply. The want wasn't aggressive or sexual it was tender almost terminal. Her heart stopped for a second.

"Diana." Bane cooed, "There is only one thing I need your help with and becoming a savior of the faceless masses is not it." He closed his eyes and sighed dropping a heavy hand on her shoulder. He felt her stand soundly under his palm. She was still warm even in the thick mist of the marshy terrain, regardless of the way she dressed. "I don't want to be an arm of justice. I don't want to decompose in Arkham. I don't want to be murdered by a corrupt government." He opened his eyes into hers and cupped her face in his hands. "Be my gentle end, Wonder Woman. Save me from your society." He whispered.

She narrowed her eyes and held his wrists, "Bane…what you're asking…." She gasped furrowing her brow, "I could never…" her voice trailed off. She was no stranger to taking a life. She'd warred and fell many a nemesis, but to kill a healthy heart that suffers no more than breaking and a mind so astute. A Warrior, yes; a Murderess, no, that was not who she was. He stroked her cheek with his thumb and unconsciously she found herself nuzzle his palm. "I won't." She breathed and that was the whole of the statement. It was definite and all encompassing. He nodded and drew his hands back and freed himself from her grasp.

"I knew you would say that." Bane again smiled behind his mask crinkling the skin under his eyes. He admired her so much, his polar opposite. Another place, another life, perhaps, there was a time for them to exist together harmoniously. "You don't have to do anything. Just be here." He reached for the back of his head to the buckles that held fast his life support. He was alive, for sure, but without Talia there was no life in his body only empty fury.

"What. What are you doing? Bane!" Diana reached for his arm as he fumbled with the clasps for the mask. "Stop!" She took a firm hold on him and looked into his eyes. He was waiting. His eyes gleamed like charred emeralds in the dim light. If she yanked his arm away his hand would close on the mask and she'd be responsible for him pulling it off. If she relinquished her hold he'd pull it off alone. Either way, Bane would get what he wanted. She was defeated. Diana hung her head and loosened her fingers. "Alright." Her hand slipped off of the thick of his bicep. "I won't help you end yourself."

With his free hand he reached out and held her chin tipping her face back up to look at him. "Do not demean yourself, Amazon, by sparing sorrow for a monster like me. I knew only one path. I now find myself at its end. This is the only way." On his last sentence he stripped himself of the facade he'd known for so long. Diana struggled against him to push it back to his mouth but he flung it off into the dark mores. She turned to run after it and he held her in place.

"No! NO!" she shouted and pushed and kicked against him. A gurgle and pant wafted into her ears. She turned in his arms to look at him. His face distorted and scarred. His skin was withered and pale where the leather clinched to him and the mechanical structure enclosed his mouth and nose, what little nose there was. Two dark holes stark in the middle of his face had been freed of the cartilage that should have been there. Diana put her hand against this face, against skin that hadn't seen the light of day in countless years.

"Not…long…now…Princess…" he wheeze d from tattered lips. Bane became weak, his knees buckled and he dropped against Diana taking them both to the ground. "Not…long…"

She was taken off guard at his sudden collapse and fell with him. She scrambled out from under him turning Bane over and putting his head in her lap. "Can I fix this?" Her eyes darted out into the direction of where he'd thrown the mask. She watched him reach up and take a lock of her air between his fingers again, twirling it. She looked down at him tears spilling, "Bane?"

Bruce paced back and forth, he knew they hadn't been there long but it felt like hours. What could they possibly be talking about? Diana was probably using her amazing stubbornness to argue the same point in umpteen different ways hoping to either trick or exhaust Bane into agreeing with her. And what if she did? Then what? They couldn't take him to Watchtower. Bruce would certainly not stand to have him at the manor. Would she take him to Themyscira? Attempt to rehabilitate him? Show him the love and patience she forwarded everyone else? His blood began to rage and heat rose in his face. The idea of her near Bane, anyone, it made his skin crawl and his teeth grit. He loved Diana more than she knew, more than he was able to express. He looked up at them in time to see Bane tackle her to the ground. She wasn't moving. Was she? "DI-ANN-AH!" he roared and took off full tilt towards the shadowed heap on the ground.

"Ama..zon. One…" his breathing was labored he fought to hold on but his body betrayed him and began to shake. His chest rattled and he knew he was not long for this world nor for this warm and affectionate touch. Should he have taken her proposal? Could he have been able to change? No, no that was Death whispering doubt in his ear; a final fantasy for him to wrap himself in while grasping for a glimmer of comfort.

"Of course." She softly wept. She adjusted him slightly and leaned forward gently pressing a light kiss to what should have been his bottom lip. She felt teeth and bone to against her skin. Diana did not cringe but more hot tears splashed down on to Bane's face and she put her forehead to his. "It didn't have to be like this." She breathed against him

"For…give…" but his breath hissed and his imminent expiration came to pass. His body went limp and his face turned away from her.

"I do," she cried, "I'm sorry, Bane. I failed you." Diana's voice was lost to her sobs. She'd never mourned an adversary and she'd never felt so strongly as she did right now. Ripe with raw emotions, what did the lasso want her to learn? Where was the purpose in this loss? "Diana!" Bruce's throaty snarl caught her and she looked up at him skidding to a halt on the long slick grass.

He stopped and nearly stumbled over Bane's feet. "What? What happen?" Bruce panted his voice tinged with confusion. His eyes rested on Diana's face which glistened with tears. He noted a slight tremble in her body and watched as she absently stroked Bane's head. The only thought he had was 'Why? Why Bane?' Even in death he was somehow the target of the touch Bruce yearned for.

Diana looked down to her lap, his face was in profile. She could see one wide round eye, eyes that had moments ago been so full of anger now looked far away, even happy. She closed her own eyes and squeezed out the last of her tears. Then she moved her hand to close Bane's as well. "I failed." She whispered then looked up at Bruce. He looked cold and stoic as ever. He was a constant. Neither Bruce nor Batman ever wavered. He was a solid man and a solitary man. Sometimes she thought she saw the light of his half smiles touch his eyes but it was rare. She watched him pull his cowl back to reveal his features. Thick dark hair stood at odd angles before he ran his hand along his head to tame it. His eyes were narrow and sharp as they calculated the situation. She knew Bruce wouldn't understand, he couldn't, and that was alright. "I failed, Bruce." She said again looking him directly in the eyes. "I tried. I tried to show him that there was another way. He could exist in a place where he could channel his emotions in to something more virtuous. I wanted him to know that he was worth a life of good." She sighed and gently caressed Bane's cheek, it was becoming clammy. Diana swallowed and looked back to Bruce, "He tore his mask off and threw it into the fog. I wanted to retrieve it but…."

Bruce walked around the fallen villain to his friend. He wanted to drop to his knees beside Diana and hold her to him. He'd never seen her so vulnerable. He'd never seen her so human. She was always a pillar of strength on which they could all depend. She loved with child like abandon and when she smiled all of the evil in the world hid from her blushing radiance. That was how he saw her, anyway. He wanted to calm her tremors and kiss her tears away. He wanted to brush her long raven hair from her face and tell her that everything was going to be alright. Instead he reached out a hand to her, to help her stand. She waved him off, of course. He watched as she dipped and kissed the top of Bane's head before lifting and placing him on the ground. Diana stood up slowly with a shake in her knees. She was all heart ache and woman right now, something no one ever saw in her. Was this trust?

"Bruce", she breathed turning to him. He had such a strange look in his eyes, even as his features froze to stone, "what have I done? Have I murdered him? I only wanted to help. The lasso…it…it…" She felt her bottom lip begin to tremble without reluctance. She held the golden rope in her hand and felt _nothing_. The whispers of Bane's emotions had been evaporated from its mystical strands. "I couldn't save him." She said softly still holding his gaze and releasing the now quiet weapon.

He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and held her at arm's length. "Diana," he started but found himself floundering in the burning sapphires that eagerly stared at him begging for him to help her make it right. He sighed and dropped his elbows but still held her away. Looking past her to the man on the ground he began again, "you can't 'fix' everyone. Sometimes…being broken is all someone knows." He clenched his teeth and took a deep breath fighting to not embrace the teary eyed Amazon. He should have found better words. He should have comforted her, not become brazen against her actions, her intentions had been so gracious.

She cast her gaze down to Bane, "Yeah. Broken." Diana just stared at him. For a hopeful moment she thought she saw his chest expand but the longer she watched him the more her vision began to swim and she realized tears were again sliding down her face. She was thankful she was with Bruce. He spoke so little to anyone else in The Justice League she knew her moments of weakness would be safe within him. She desperately wanted him to reach out and just hold her for a minute. The cold had soaked into her bones and the icy hand of loss gripped her heart. For just one minute she wanted him to look on her as a woman not a warrior. That was a pipe dream; Bruce opened to no one, not even her.

"Diana, what would you like to do for him?" Bruce asked gently. He saw her eyes dim and float away. He wanted to bring her back before her mind could wander too far. In some regard she was much like him. She would replay the event over and over in her mind's eyes and look for a different play another tactic; 'if only I'd…' she would think to herself. He knew. He did the same thing with Talia, the flip side of this coin.

"I'd like for him to have a proper burial. No reporting to authorities that he's been captured or killed. I just want him to rest." Her words were strong and sure but her voice was soft. Diana knew she had to pull herself together. She was Wonder Woman after all. What would her mother think should she see her daughter blubbering over a death such as this?

"I can arrange that for you." He nodded even though she wasn't looking at him. He dropped one hand from her shoulder and attempted to step closer to her. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to be close to her and not just physically. As he reached for her waist Diana turned and patted his forearm that still held her away.

"You're a good friend, Bruce." Diana forced a wry smile. He confused her so often and now was no different. She could feel waves of anger rolling off of him but there was also something else, something she couldn't pinpoint. At least with Hal and Cal El she could get emotions and Cal El was an alien for Goddess sake. "I'll leave you to it." She started to pull away then stopped. Diana leaned into him and lightly kissed his cheek "Thank you, Bruce." She whispered against his skin then turned to go.

Diana sauntered away and he watched her as she fidgeted with her lasso and a lock of hair. He waited until he saw her outline climb into the batwing. He pulled his cell phone from his belt to put a call into Alfred. He explained what had happen in as vague a detail as possible, which wasn't hard since he hadn't been a main component of this meeting. When Alfred started to question him he noted that it is Diana's wish and the old man instantly stoped his protest. Bruce smiled to himself, she had that effect on everyone it seemed. Coordinates were set and plans were made swiftly. This had to happen in a matter of hours and certainly before nightfall. Bane would rest on the Wayne Estate in a marked but unnamed grave. Bruce knelt and kept his voice hushed as he addressed Bane's body, "I don't know what you said to her or what you did to her but I swear…on the blood of my parents…if you damaged her…" Bruce's chest started heaving as he tried to control strange feelings. It wasn't that he didn't understand them he just didn't visit them often. Diana got the better of him, lines blurred when it came to her he just wanted to…. Then it clicked in his head as he looked at Bane. Bruce was jealous. He had thought he was angry. Angry at Diana for wanting to help this fallen monster. Angry at himself for letting her try. No. He was jealous that Bane…BANE got to see her, touch her, be near to her in a way Bruce had no idea how to. "It doesn't matter now." Bruce growled and stood up. He resisted the urge to kick the corpse because he knew she was watching. "If you turned her into something like us…." He muttered as he pulled his cowl back on. "This death was too good for you." He growled turning to head back.


End file.
